SAD 2/2019

The issue opens with Miroslav Petříček’s essay “The Practice of Freedom” accompanied by excerpts from Michel Foucault’s papers “The Ethics of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom” and “What is Critique?”. Karel Haloun’s series about political posters continues with an instalment entitled “… This is Our Agitation”. The opening section “Freedom and… Poker” closes with essays “The Conspiratorial Theory of Science” by Ann-Frid Uvlaeus and “The Poker Player Who did not Win” by Pjotr Skałnik. In the section “Family and Other… Memories” Karolina Plicková writes in her essay “The Stove, the Cupboard, the Stools” about the production I’ll Come Yesterday by Tereza Volánková and Sára Arnsteinová. Marie Zdeňková (“Dreaming in Dlouhá”) writes about the productions A Dream in the Red House and Letters to Olga presented at Divadlo v Dlouhé by the duo SKUTR. Barbora Kašparová in her essay “About Emancipation and Capitalism at Provázek” writes about the Divadlo Husa na provázku, specifically about Kateřina Tučková’s Vitka (directed by Anna Petrželková) and Gogol’s Gamblers directed by Michal Hába. The section “Visionary… Wars” consists of “a volatile feuilletonistic essay on a theme of the Dejvice Absolute”, dedicated to the scenic version of Karel Čapek’s novel The Absolute at Large and entitled by Karel Král An Obsession with God, and Alena Skálová’s article In the Role of Offenders about Čapek’s War with the Newts at the British Knaïve Theatre. The section “British… Entertainments” stays in Britain and Ester Žantovská (“Britney Doesn’t Know which Way to Turn”) reflects on the international tour of the production My Country: A Work in Progress by the London National Theatre, while Karolina Plicková (“I Didn’t Know My Vote was Counted”) writes about “a durational performance” Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare by Forced Entertainment. In the section “The World… from the Festivals’ Shop Windows” Vladimír Mikulka (“It is Autumn, the Actors Have Arrived”) looks at the Prague German Language Theatre Festival and the productions Die Zehn Gebote (directed by Stephan Kimmig, Volkstehater Wien), Die Odyssee (directed by Antú Romero Nunes, Thalia Theater Hamburg), Unendlicher Spaß (directed by Thorsten Lensig) and Five Easy Pieces (directed by Milo Rau, Campo Gent). Rudo Leška writes about the Janáček Brno 2018 international festival and the operas The Makropulos Affair (directed by Kornél Mundruczó, conductor Tomáš Netopil, Opera Vlaanderen), The Diary of One Who Disappeared (directed by Ivo van Hove, Muziektheater Transparant and Toneelgroep Amsterdam) and From the House of the Dead (directed by David Pountney, conductor Tomáš Hanus, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera). Kateřina Veselovská writes in her essay “Polish Theatre of Individual Responsibility” about productions of My Struggle (directed by Michał Borczuch, TR Warszawa) and Justice (directed by Michał Zadara, Teatr Powszechny Warszawa). In the section “France… of Indians and Ventriloquists” Soňa Šimková writes in her essay “Art is Autonomous” about the production Kanata – Episode 1 – Controversy by Robert Lepage and Théâtre du Soleil, and in her essay “Our Society through the Eyes of Puppets” Natálie Preslová introduces French puppet theatre for adults. In the section “European Appreciation… in Russia” Jakub Škorpil (“Recollections on Theatre”) gives an account of the 17^th Premio Europa and productions by Lev Dodin (Hamlet, Maly Drama Theatre), Andrey Moguchy (The Governor, Bolshoi Drama Theatre), Valery Fokin (Masquerade and Schweik, Alexandrinsky Theatre), Tiago Rodrigues (Burning the Flag – a work in progress by the author, and Breathe, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II.) and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (Puzzle, Eastman). The section “To the Great Beyond… with Ivan Vyrypaev” foreshadows the play of the issue, which is Vyrypaev’s Unbearably Long Embraces. Martina Ulmanová (“Drunks. Embraces. The Great Beyond. Darkness.”) writes about Slovak productions of the plays The Drunks and Unbearably Long Embraces, directed by Eduard Kudláč in the Žilina Town Theatre. It is followed by Karel Král’s interview with Ivan Vyrypaev, entitled Creating in a New Era. The “Comedy Mix” section introduces a German author Hazel Brugger through her texts Why Women are not So Funny? and And What About You? and Egon Tobiáš’s comic strip Titanium Stalks continues with its eighth instalment.